“Owning the Libs”
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Hello everyone,
door 6 of the epic German learning Advent Calendar, which means it’s Nikolaus day today. That’s a sort of mini Christmas where kids get sweets and colleagues bring cookies to work.
And Nikolaus also brought something for all you German learners here – a portion of completely pure, refined, chrystaline
GERMAN-ENGLISH CRINGE
Like… no cap!
It’s bad.
A bit of context first.
Most of you have at least heard about TikTok. It’s basically a short form video clip platform and it’s insanely popupal among Gen Z and young millenials.
More and more “adults” and companies are also joining. And even politicians and political parties because they want to get the foot in the door with the young voters.
Now, it’s always a bit let’s say “hit and miss” when older people try to appeal to the young folks by “speaking their language”.
And it’s twice as bad if it’s the dreaded Denglish. German with a lot of English words mixed in.
Well… here’s a TikTok clip from some leading politican from the FDP party (the German liberal party, in the older, classical sense of the word) doing a tour of the parliament (before they blew up the government and lied their way through the media about it).
So yeah… let’s do this! I’ve decided not to add a translation because first of all, it’s really uninteresting stuff and also, you’ll recognize half the words anyway, especially if you’re under 30 and online.
All right, brace yourselves!!
My favorite line is: “Hier ist euer Boy, OG Christian Lindner. No cap!”
That gave me a little cringegasm.
But seriously… I do not know why they decided to post this. Like… I can’t tell if they’re trying to be ironic about it or not. But if they wanted to be ironic, then it’s the most piss poor delivery ever.
Or maybe they’re thinking any attention is good attention. I don’t really know.
In either case, it was widely laughed at, which makes me really happy because I really really dislike the party and I want them to not make it into the parliament next time.
They’re the liberal party of Germany by the way. Which is not to be confused with liberals as they’re understood in the US for instance.
What the liberal party used to stand for is individual freedom and responsibility, pro business and “small” government (by European standards).
To me, they’re now mostly a bunch of rich buddies who are too stupid to actually succeed on the private market, so they go into politics to at least get some rich business friends.
!!! Trigger Warning !!!
Emanuel will rant about the party and share some of his political views.
But in their current form, they’re an embarrassement.
They blocked pretty much any policy our administration (which they were a part of) wanted to implement. Then, Scholz had enough and kicked Lindner out.
Then, they whined that Scholz had a speech prepared.
Two weeks later, investigative journalists detail how the FDP had been planning to blow up the government since summer.
They deny and say it’s a lie. For a week.
Until on their own website, they publish a strategy document from fall that was talking about D-Day and “open battle” in the context of … blowing up the government. They had made a flow chart about how they’ll do it. In the shape of a pyramid, because we all know pyramids get built from the top.
This is not a joke. They had this on their website.
Genious stuff, and turned into a big fat self-own.
But my least favorite move of the FDP recently (when they were still in government) was that they say they’re the party of the free market that wants to do austerity policy and THEN, they have the guts to demand an emergency rescue package of tens of millions for a failing AIR taxi startup of a friend of theirs. A company that spent one BILLION already and has no product to market. And it’s registered in the Netherlands. The hypocracy is off the charts.
Anyway, sorry for waxing political, I just feel a strong urge to vent, when FDP is the topic.
And speaking of venting… I’m pretty sure quite a few of you had an urge to vent when you saw the clip. Because I know that many of you really dislike all these English words being imported into German.
So yeah… comment section is all yours. And also let me know how much you understood of the video, and how much you cringed :)
I hope you enjoyed this, have a great day and bis morgen!!
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That video was awful. Those words shouldn’t exist in any language. I actually REALLY liked reading about your opinion of the political atmosphere in Germany. Feel free to have more vent sessions about whatever is on your mind. I’ll happy read it.
Wow, that’s like a 9.5 on the cringe scale. And I totally agree about the FDP! What a bunch of annoying, greedy losers.
Actually in general I think it’s funny when they use English words, it doesn’t really annoy me at all. But my German boyfriend gets extremely annoyed by it and even by “anglicisms” (like, German phrases that are literal translations from English and previously would not have been used in German).
I do remember one time when I was trying to understand an Instagram Story from a German musician, and I replayed it several times before I understood that his final sentence was, “When you know you know” with a heavy German accent. I had assumed it was a German phrase I didn’t know, haha.
“venn ju noh, ju noh”
It makes me think I don’t need to learn German. SOON, you’ll be just speaking English, lol Es tut mir leid – Die Politik ist überall schlect
If this is a right-wing discussion; sympathetic to Trump and right-wing Germans, I don’t want to be included in it.
No, it’s not a right wing discussion.
“owning the libs” is such a stupid trope that I found it funny to use it while talking about the German liberal party FDP, which is one of the cloest to the GOP within the German political spectrum. Liberals in German doesn’t mean the same as liberals in the US and doesn’t mean the same as liberals 30 years ago.
So yeah, I picked the title because it is technically true to the article but absolutely untrue to what people think is going on who see the title, and there’s a certain shock value in it, so that’s why I used it.
What do you mean by “…owning the ‘libs’…?
The titles in my Advent Calendar rarely directly tell the actual topic. They’re always some sort of pun or twist that’s supposed to throw you off track a bit.
Just read the article and you’ll understand what this actually is.
In Italy something even worst is going on, with boomers who can’t actually speak English coming up with new words or expression. We have “baby parking” which has been around for almost 20 years now, and the brand new “smart working”
Italians making up English expressions?! Now that is a real surprise to me :).
Let me take a guess:
“baby parking” – when you leave your baby with relatives so you can work or have free time.
“smart working” – working less than expected
Am I right at all?
There’s some truth in your translation. A Baby parking is a private kindergarten, smart working means working remotely (smart in Italy now means that it has some connection to the computers/IT world)
“smart working” is working remotely?! Wow, I never would have guessed that in a quiz.
Do you ever then think “dumb working” when someone can’t work remotely?
I understood the German better than the English slang, which shows my distance from TikTok and GenZ. It is impossible, though, for me to tell whether this was meant to be “tongue in cheek,” or a gone wrong serious effort to communicate. Cringe-worthy is a perfect description.
Theoretically I don’t mind english words being imported into german because thats basically how languages work. Too be honest I actually occasionally have found certain co- learners complaining about it kind of irritating.
However, I do find some uses of english words, like here, cringy. I feel there is a lack of awareness in which social contexts they originate from. Like cap i know from us hip hop i.e. its origins are african american and slay comes from the drag scene. Know this context definitely makes this even cringier.
Actually one english word i’ve noticed a lot this year in german is safe. In some ways its strange as its not used like english (and is generally a oft-mistranslated word) but I kind of decided rather than get annoyed by its “missuse” I should just accept that its just languages doing their thing…
Oh… yeah, “safe” is VERY common, but it’s been around for 10 years. I’m actually surprised when I STILL hear it, but I think it has established itself at this point.
– Der ist safe in der Bar.
– Mit Maria?
– Safe.
Same effect as “auf jeden Fall”.
yeah, its basically “definitely”. you would never say “he is safe in the bar” unless he was avoiding danger by being there.
Or……..’A Self-righteousness of Politicians’ ?
Or…….’A Speakingoutofbothsidesoftheirmouths Politicians’ ?
Perhaps…… ‘An Hipocricy of Politicians’ ?
Oh Gott, das war wirklich furchtbar. Cringe factor 10! Vielleicht hätte man ein bisschen lachen können, wenn der Kerl keinen Anzug getragen hätte und sich am Schluss Senf auf den Fuss hätte fallen lassen (ist der Konjunktiv hier richtig?). Persönlich weiss ich nicht viel über die FDP, nur dass sie nicht beliebt ist. Ich habe in den USA genug mit unseren 2 Parteien am Hals. Vielen Dank für dieses cringe-worthy Adventstürchen.
“und sich am Schluss Senf auf den Fuss hätte fallen lassen”
10/10!!! Absolut perfekt!
Du schreibst insgesamt EXTREM gut!!
Danke, Emanuel! Bin ja auch schon 77 Jahre auf der Erde.
Dann bist du mit 111 wahrscheinlich dann Goethe-level :)
slay :)
In Australia where I am it’s the same, all the parties and members of parliament have TikTok accounts and post videos of themselves making sandwiches to appear more relatable and it’s the cringiest thing ever. A senator also recently gave a speech entirely in gen z slang. Face palm.
I full body cringed so hard watching that video my body folded into itself and became a black hole
Mega is just a normal word in German, yeah? I could react to something I like with a quick ‘Mega!’ and it wouldn’t be weird? Or is it passé now/something for elder millennials?
Love you going off on politics, I’m an international news/political junkie so I love to keep up with it if I can, I used to watch the German satirical shows (heute show, extra 3, Neo Magazin Royale) but I just didn’t find the joke hit-miss ratio that good and the YouTube captions were sometimes a bit off. A recent-ish discovery was the Dutch Show De Avond Show mit Arjen Lubach which I love love love, absolutely hilarious and kept me up to date with the (usually-but-not-always political) goings-on in the netherlands. Unfortunately it aired its last episode (it was a 4x a week show so I’m a bit relieved I don’t have to make that committment anymore) but all that to say I had only a cursory awareness of Die Ampel coalition falling apart but being able to pick up on the details of it from you was sehr interessante und ich mag es
OMG, yes… I can’t believe I never covered that.
“meeeegaaaa” is super duper common, especially as a stand alone (at least in Berlin hipster circles) when you like something.
– Morgen Party bei mir. Es gibt einen Dj.
– Mega. Ich komme auf jeden Fall.
About German television comedy:
“but I just didn’t find the joke hit-miss ratio ”
The only thing I can remotely watch is Magazin Royal, but that just works because they lifted the concept straight from Last Week tonight with John Oliver.
Böhmermann’s team does good work and actual journalism though, so I am happy to pay for them. My favorite was when the inseretd a mole into a meeting of the Austrian right wing party who then recorded their hanging out on Mallorca. Something like that. Was a big breaking news at the time.
“Heute Show” tries really hard, but they really need to learn when a joke ends. A general problem with German comedy. They think riding it makes it funnier.
Also embarrassing is the guy’s delivery — he acts as if he’s trying frantically to be cool and is just failing — abysmally. It’s an insult to his viewers. He reminds me of the time some of the top bank executives at a Canadian bank (where I worked for in their Internet tech department) decided they needed to look cool in these Internet times and had their photo taken with them in bluejeans standing “casually” in front of a brick wall. They were ridiculed.
By the way, I’ve noticed a lot of non-German words in use for really common words such as “baby” and “cousin” — it makes me wonder what words were used before these words were appropriated.
“cousin” is from French and we use that with French pronunciation.
As for “baby”, that’s been around for a LONG time. The words before that were “Säugling” and “Kleinkind”, so no wonder we imported something.
What often happens is that words “split” a meaning. So you have one word that covers two areas and then we import something and the German word gets one aspect while the import gets another. Like “fresh” and “frisch”, which do not mean the same when used in German. I feel like this importing by and large makes the language richer because it’s more differentiated. And we know that German language LOVES having more words.
Thanks, Emanuel!
Second hand embarrassmnet is real.. Why would someone do that? I cringed so much I couldn’t even finish the video. It’s just A LOT.
About Denglish, is it normally used by Gen Z? Or is it just a weird cringy try from older generations to “fit in”?
I hope I can get this video out of my system soon enough, we have enough shitty politicians as is I can’t deal with Germany’s ones right now :D
Oh hell yeah… especially the gamer and streaming community uses a LOT of English words.
We have this “survival” show called 7 vs Wild, where they mix survivalists and influencers. And in the recent season, a streamer was part of the cast and he and another woman would use SOOOOOO much English that people in the comments would complain. And here comes the kicker:
The streamer actually doesn’t really SPEAK English. Just A1 level.
Here’s an example, though not very intense.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/v9SNLIb8XZw
And here he is trying to speak actual English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdiQuWmlr8o
He’s a good guy though. Very intelligent actually, honest and observant.
Here’s another example of another streamer
https://youtube.com/shorts/4xS2DfFlhxo?si=B6NY_JcrRIFxOfJm
I did NOT expect English to be a part of German culture, apart from having common roots and things like that.
One thing that surprised me when I first learnt about it was that German people could try and talk to tourists in English instead of German, even when the tourists wanted (and tried) to NOT use English. I think it was in a couple of Easy German videos and other places as well that they maybe want the conversation to be more efficient? I don’t want to be stereotypical but I do know that Germans L.O.V.E Efficiency almost as much as Rules.
I think there are multiple factors for while people speak English back to attempts at German.
Some people do it to show off their English or come across as “cool”.
Others might do it because they have people pleasing tendencies and Germany, because of its history, does not have a “country-cult” like France does, where they’re really proud of their language.
It even sometimes happens that two Germans will speak English to each other in digital nomad circles, even though no foreigner is around in that moment. That’s super akward.
But me to, I do tend to ask if we should switch to English if we’re 4 Germans and one foreigner, because I find it unfair to just exlcude someone, when I know that all of us do speak English.
As for the links that I shared – gaming culture and streamer culture is just dominated by US influence, and you can see the cultural influence everywhere.
You know? It’s super common for people in my country to use Germany as the ABSOLUTE example for people taking PRIDE in their language (not sure that’s the right way to put it though).
It’s always either Germany or Turkey, followed by a lecture of 1001 reasons why we should be like them and be proud of our language.
Of course everyone should be proud of their language, I’m not disagreeing, but I find it ironic that things are not all that different between what you’re talking about now and what I experience.
As someone who was taught all their life, from kindergarten to college, with 95% of the curricula in English, and my high school certificate was the IGCSE, a British system taught naturally in English, I (unfortunately) do mix English with Arabic. I try not to do it so often, but it’s not very easy. One thing I caught myself doing is switching languages whenever I’m having a deep talk about my feelings or so.
P.S. As a foreigner who doesn’t speak German very well yet, THANK YOU.
Interesting, how every country has their own story about other countries :).
So from a German perspective, I would say that as a whole, we don’t take too much pride in our language.
What country are you from? I think you did tell me when you emailed me about the sponsorship, but I forgot.
“Interesting, how every country has their own story about other countries :).”
I can see the neben Satz here.
It’s fun getting to know things from “The Other”‘s point of view.
It’s okay, I told you that a couple of months ago. I’m from Egypt, but I think other Arab countries have a similar version of “The Talk” in some way. Most Arab countries are way too similar and shockingly different at the same time.
I don’t know if you know this, but the difference between wriiten/standard Arabic and spoken Arabic is huge, with other massive differences between the “Spoken Arabics” of other countries.
But it is fun to learn. If you decide to learn it I’d be happy to help :) As a native and an online teacher for kids. Part of my job is teaching preschoolers how to read complex Arabic texts and explaining its meanings.
OK, I’m an old guy with somewhat weird tastes (anyone else love “Carry On…” movies?), but I actually thought it was quite funny: just “cringy(#)” enough, and just knowing enough to get over the line, despite some utterly atrocious moments (“slay” is so, so, so, done with, no matter what language you’re inserting it into).
Oh yeah: WTF is “Pop of King” meant to mean? King of Pop, maybe?? Or “Pop-off King?” (ie, king of farts?).
“No cap” isn’t something I’d met before, but made sense once I looked it up (it’s essentially “no bullshitting/exaggeration”, for those living in a similarly deprived state as I was). Back in the day/week/month/year/ok_ok_decade “no crap” was used similarly (and so quite distinct from “no shit”, which is considerably more flexible). Heck, I guess the recently-discussed “I shit you not” is going to want to poke its nose in here as well.
((Hey, you know what could be a lot of fun, some time in the boundless future? An Easy German Podcast episode in which you, Cari, Manuel and Janusz go head to head about political systems, particularly the benefits vs costs of Germany’s Spielplatz mit mehreren Parteien, which the Podcast hosts have lauded on many occasions. :-) All to be recorded after the administering of appropriate –not exorbitant!– quantities of alcohol, of course…))
(#) I just can’t get on board with “cringe” as it’s commonly used now (ie, instead of “cringeworthy”). Just another quirk to get over, I know… So, so many quirks…
“Pop of king” was unbeknownst to me, as well, but of course I DMOR (did my own research) and apperantly “popping off” just means that you’re doing really well, or excelling.
So Cringeian Lindern is the king of that, as we can clearly observe at the moment. Next stop chancellor.
Urban Dictionary has “pop off queen”, and where there’s a queen, there haseth to be a king, too.
Oh, a side meaning is that you just snap at someone, which Cringeian Lindner has done toward Friedrich Merz recently, after Merz said he was “very shocked” about Chringeian saying we should “mehr Milei wagen”.
The meaning you mentioned is my favorite though! Makes the clip way funnier.
As for the podcast:
I would LOVE to do that, but I don’t think they’re up for it. They don’t do long form for one thing and they’re a bit too curated and non-confrontational for this kind of discussion.
No shade, it’s all love :).
I wasn’t aware they praised the Flock of Partys that we have. What’s the best group noun, for that btw. Flock? School? A murder?
What I am seeing from Bulgaria, which I am observing somewhat closely, where new parties are popping up and disappearing is an absolute disaster. They have voted like 6 times in the last 3 years and the government is never stable, because of all these weird coalitions they have to form.
It’s much easier to withstand these kinds of tensions WITHIN a party, and fight it out there because a party is not going to disolve all the time.
The executive is meant to govern, it’s called an “administration”. If they’re too busy finding and navigating compromise all the time, then they cannot do their job effectively.
I think 4-5 relevant parties are ideal. And I do like the small ones, for regional elections and to build grassroots interest in politics. But yeah… a parliament with 8 parties who all more or less hate each other in some regards.. that’s not helping anyone.
Popping off in British English means leaving, like “I’m popping off to the pub for a few rounds with the mates”. In American it is usually used for someone randomly saying loud and angry things and it’s definitely not a complement. So yeah, King of Pop is very appropriate for Lindner.
Well, in case of FDP people, they would pop off to the high society steak house. Christian Lindner may well be the pop-off king in that sense.
Oh yuck, I just looked up that clip where Lindner talks about Deutschland daring to be more “Milei (oder Musk)”: er ist wirklich zuwider. (“Cringeian” is nice, I fully intend to steal that!). And nice work with your research, which I’d missed. I’m sure there’s some kind of ongoing off versus of conflation infecting German minds: I hear it (and read it) all the time.
Yeah, I have no doubt that you’re right about the podcast: sadly, I think they’ve imprisoned themselves with the current format, leading to endless (re-re-re)-rehearsals of the tired old “top oder flop” theme. I don’t want to be too harsh –having listened to 400ish episodes I owe them that much– but it’s definitely gone downhill during the last year or so (and the episodes with a live audience even more so, as then everything turns “happy clappy”, like a low-key revival meeting). The main remaining fun for me is Cari gently poking fun at Manuel’s anal retentiveness every now and then, and the occasional appearance of Janusz floundering in-and-at philosophy ;-)
The “many small parties forming loose coalitions of convenience” model, particularly when coupled with a tendency of splintering (heck, maybe there can be a Bündnis CL to add to the burgeoning Bündnis SW?), is just a fast lane to chaos, particularly in the more turbulent times when a government needs to make unpopular decisions. Not that I’d dare mention der Klimawandel, supporting Ukraine (and NATO’s future), or even the looming decimation of local manufacturing in Deutschland. No sir, not here, not I…
“I think they’ve imprisoned themselves with the current format,”
Reading this, the word “overproduced” came to my mind. It’s more like a radio show than a podcast and I think the rather strict 30 minute thing they got going on is not really useful. They do cut a lot and have their mind on cutting and time while doing the show. The times I was there, I always felt there’s an incredible rush.
I’d love to tell them, too, but I won’t. I don’t think they are open to criticism there :).
My girlfriend said about their “30 days in the US” video that Januzs and Manuel looked pissed, and I told Cari, and I think that triggered them a tiny little bit (imo because it’s true, lol).
Anyways, it’s their product, they got the numbers, they got the sponsors and they have managed to build a legit business with offices and employees from the former two people show (Cari and Januzs), so I feel weird telling them how to run their podcast. Though I do think a more open format could pull even more listeners.
” or even the looming decimation of local manufacturing ”
I don’t think that’s happening. By comparison to other rich nations, we’re still behind on deindustrializing and the recent VW disasters are management made and they do need to fail big for this. We’re a Marktwirtschaft after all, and they really didn’t understand the Markt.
I hope you’re right regarding the manufacturing situation: to be honest, Germany has always seemed like quite the outlier among the richer nations in this regard. I wasn’t really thinking about the VW situation in particular, and the long sequence of own goals that they’ve kicked over the last decade or so, but rather the car industry more generally, and the influence of the EU’s EV war with China. Let’s just say that poking the bear, even a little, can lead to catastrophic responses: heck just ask anyone in the Australian wine industry just how much fun it was to have a 200% tarriff slapped onto all product being sold in your largest, and up until then fastest growing market (as a result of our then Prime Minister “bravely” calling for an inquiry into the origins of COVID. Sigh…). So yeah, maybe the car industry *as a whole* has an interesting time coming soon™, with all the knock-on effects that brings with it (the situation with steel manufacturing, usw).
I haven’t seen that particular Easy German video, but now I’m intrigued (and will have a gander tomorrow): so many thoughts on that front, but I’ll shut my cakehole/halt meine Klappe for now!
Das hittet anders.
Nou käpp!